Enabling data integrity checking and faster application recovery in synchronous replicated datasets

• US 10,552,064 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2019
• Issued: 02/04/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Patnaik, Pranab, Kaushik, Akhil
• Primary Examiner(s): Rojas, Midys
• Application Number:
  US16/265,032
• Publication Number:
  US 20190163382A1
• Time in Patent Office: 368 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1662 the resynchronized component or unit being a persistent storage device re-synchronization of failed mirror storage G06F11/2082; rebuild or reconstruction of parity RAID storage G06F11/1008
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2076 Synchronous techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2082 Data synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/82 Solving problems relating to consistency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or computing devices are provided for utilizing snapshots for data integrity validation and/or faster application recovery. For example, a first storage controller, hosting first storage, has a synchronous replication relationship with a second storage controller hosting second storage. A snapshot replication policy rule is defined to specify that a replication label is to be used for snapshot create requests, targeting the first storage, that are to be replicated to the second storage. A snapshot creation policy is created to issue snapshot create requests comprising the replication label. Thus a snapshot of the first storage and a replication snapshot of the second storage are created based upon a snapshot create request comprising the replication label. The snapshot and the replication snapshot may be compared for data integrity validation (e.g., determine whether the snapshots comprise the same data) and/or quickly recovering an application after a disaster.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

creating a snapshot of first storage at a first node having a synchronous replication relationship with a second node hosting second storage based upon a snapshot create request;

creating a replication snapshot of the second storage at the second node based upon the snapshot create request; and

utilizing the replication snapshot to recover an application to utilize the second storage in place of the first storage.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the snapshot is an application consistent snapshot associated with the application that utilizes the first storage when the first node is operational.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the utilizing comprises:

recovering the application based upon the first node failing.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the application utilizes the first storage when the first node is operational and the application utilizes the second storage after the application is recovered and the first node has failed.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the application is hosted by the first node when the first node is operational and the application fails based upon the first node failing.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating a replication snapshot comprises:

creating the replication snapshot as an application consistent snapshot comprising data used to recover the application for execution at the second node and utilization of the second storage.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the snapshot create request is received from a plugin of the application.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

determining that synchronous replication, between the first node and the second node based upon the synchronous replication relationship, is being performed incorrectly based upon the snapshot and the replication snapshot comprising different data.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising:

verifying a dependent write order consistency of replicating operations to the second storage, wherein the dependent write order consistency corresponds to replication operations being executed upon the second storage in a same order as corresponding operations being executed upon the first storage.

10. A non-transitory machine readable medium having stored thereon machine executable code which when executed by a machine, causes the machine to:

create a snapshot of first storage at a first node having a synchronous replication relationship with a second node hosting second storage based upon a snapshot create request;

create a replication snapshot of the second storage at the second node based upon the snapshot create request; and

utilize the replication snapshot to recover an application to utilize the second storage in place of the first storage.

11. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 10, wherein the machine executable code causes the machine to:

verify a dependent write order consistency of replicating operations to the second storage, wherein the dependent write order consistency corresponds to replication operations being executed upon the second storage in a same order as corresponding operations being executed upon the first storage.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 10, wherein the snapshot is an application consistent snapshot associated with the application that utilizes the first storage when the first node is operational and the replication snapshot is a replication application consistent snapshot, and wherein the machine executable code causes the machine to:

perform a switchover operation from the first node to the second node based upon the first node failing, wherein the replication application consistent snapshot is utilized to recover the application to utilize the second storage in place of the first storage.

13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12, wherein the snapshot create request is received from a plugin of the application.

14. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the machine executable code causes the machine to:

receive, from a storage system replication module integrated with the application, a storage operation system application programming interface (API) command, comprising a replication label, as the snapshot create request.

15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 10, wherein the snapshot is an application consistent snapshot associated with the application that utilizes the first storage when the first node is operational and the replication snapshot is a replication application consistent snapshot, and wherein the machine executable code causes the machine to:

perform a failover operation from the first node to the second node based upon a failover command to failover from the first node to the second node, wherein the replication application consistent snapshot is utilized to recover the application to utilize the second storage in place of the first storage.

16. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 15, wherein the machine executable code causes the machine to:

triggering the failover operation within a threshold amount of time from creation of the snapshot and the replication snapshot.

17. A computing device comprising:

a memory comprising machine executable code; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to execute the machine executable code to cause the processor to;

create a snapshot of first storage at a first node having a synchronous replication relationship with a second node hosting second storage based upon a snapshot create request;

create a replication snapshot of the second storage at the second node based upon the snapshot create request; and

utilize the replication snapshot to recover an application to utilize the second storage in place of the first storage.

18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the machine executable code causes the processor to:

recover the application based upon the first node failing.

19. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the application utilizes the first storage when the first node is operational and the application utilizes the second storage after the application is recovered and the first node has failed.

20. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the snapshot is an application consistent snapshot associated with the application that utilizes the first storage when the first node is operational.